Tobacco Sales in First Half Reach 1.78 Billion Packs... Heated Tobacco Products Account for 14.5%

[Asia Economy Sejong=Reporter Kim Hyewon] As sales of heated tobacco products increased, the total cigarette sales in the first half of this year reached 1.78 billion packs.

According to the Ministry of Economy and Finance's "2022 First Half Tobacco Market Trends" released on the 29th, cigarette sales from January to June this year increased by 1.9% compared to the same period last year.

The Ministry analyzed that this was due to the continued domestic shift in demand for duty-free cigarettes compared to before COVID-19, as well as the increase in sales of heated tobacco products.

However, compared to the first half of 2014 before the cigarette price hike (2.04 billion packs), it is a decrease of 12.5%.

The sales share of heated tobacco products expanded to 14.5% in the first half of this year. This share steadily increased from 2.2% in 2017 to 9.6% in 2018, 10.5% in 2019, 10.6% in 2020, and 12.4% in 2021.

The total tax burden in the first half of this year was 5.7 trillion won, increasing by 4.9% as the volume of cigarettes shipped (1.75 billion packs) rose by 5.2% compared to the same period last year.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.